Electronics and Programming Guides

September 01, 2022 (Last Updated: March 06, 2023) | Reading Time: About 1 minute

Discover helpful and inciteful tips that you can use in your electronics and programming projects. We are focused on home-brew electronics, specifically for home automation. We like to use MQTT, Home Assistant, Node-RED, and Zigbee along with Node MCU and Arduino. With this combination of electronics and programming, you can automate anything.

We share some information about electronics fundamentals as well as knowledge about more advanced topics in electronics. It is very helpful to learn fundamentals such as Ohm's Law and resister networks when you are building home automation circuits.

Here you can find guides and articles with creative ideas, tips, and advice about programming, electronics, and home automation.

When you mix programming and electronics together you get fun.

EFUNDIES.com currently provides articles and guides related to electronics and programming. When our site update is complete, we plan to offer source code collaboration. We will also be adding guides and articles about home automation, so check in often to see our new projects.

More from Efundies

What are Transistors and How do They Work?

With the transistor we introduce the first 3 legged device. Transistors come in many varieties, shapes and sizes.

How to Darken an Image in C#

In order to darken an image in C# you need to look at each pixel one at a time and decrease it's red, green, and blue values.

Getting Started with AVR

The beauty of AVR is that once you know how to deal with one of them, you know how to deal with all of them.

Scale an Image in C# Preserving Aspect Ratio

If you need to change the size of an Image without changing the ratio of X to Y then this article tells you how.

Your home automation server can run many different operating systems, including Ubuntu, Proxmox, Unraid, and TrueNAS.

Unraid vs Proxmox vs Ubuntu - Battle For the Best Home Network Server OS

When it comes time to put an operating system on your home network server, you've got a few options.

Perl may be an old language, but it is still the glue that holds many projects together.

Perl

Perl is one of the most common glue languages available on Linux. It is useful in home automation for quick scripts as well as complex processes.

AVR chips come in many different sizes and shapes. Pictured is a PLCC socket.

AVR

The AVR microprocessor is the heart of most Arduinos. Instead of using the Arduino libraries, you can learn to program this chip directly with C++.

Resistors in Parallel

Learn how to calculate the equivalent resistance of two resistors when they are wired in parallel.

Home automation can be fun with Node-RED and Home Assistant

Node-RED Makes Automation With Home Assistant Fun

Node-RED adds a lot of fun to Home Assistant.

How to Read a Schematic - Common Schematic Symbols

There are about 10 that you should memorize, and the rest you can look up. Here we will show you some common schematic symbols and give a brief description of them.

How to Create a WinAVR C Skeleton File

If you are New To C then you can consider this a crash course introduction to the language.

433 Mhz hardware can extend your home automation.

433 Mhz Radio Transmitters

433 Mhz radio transmitters are available everywhere and they are usually very inexpensive. With a little bit of programming we can make them do anything we want.

Image Processing in C#: A Comprehensive Guide

C# is a great language to do image processing in. It's fast and easy to handle complex image manipulations with it.

Some common components include capacitors and resistors, as well as transistors, LED displays, and chips.

Electronics Fundamentals

Learn all about resistors, capacitors, and transistors in our collection of Electronics Fundamentals articles.

C#: How to Use HTML Colors in Your Code

The .Net framework has a great object for dealing with colors called Color that we use to deal with HTML color codes.

MQTT is the backbone of many home automation systems.

MQTT

MQTT is the backbone of many home automation systems. We consider MQTT to be the most important part of your home automation system.

AVR Port Input in C

### Connect PortB To Switches Remember how we connected **PORTA** to the **LEDS**. Now we are going to connect **PORTB** to the **SWITCHES**.

How To Read Schematics

Those pictures are called a schematic. A schematic is a picture representation of what we are talking about in electronics.

Load an Image in C#

- Perhaps you want to create an image processing program. - You may need to resize or rescale an image.

AVR Port Input Logic

In this guide we will write a program in C that makes some decisions based on the state of input pins.

C# Text File

There is a static object called "File" (located in System. IO) that does all the hard work for you.

RSR solderless breadboard

How to Prototype Electronics Projects

When experimenting with electronics, it is usually best to practice in what is called a Solderless Breadboard.

How to Select the Right Resistor for Your Circuit: A Fundamentals Guide

The most important component to understand in electronics is the resistor.

NodeMCU is one of our go-to chips for tackling various home automation projects.

NodeMCU

We use NodeMCU boards for almost every aspect of home automation. These inexpensive little power-houses can solve many home automation problems.

How to Adjust the Contrast of an Image in C#

Adjusting the contrast of an image in C# is an easy operation because it can be done on a single pixel at a time.

If you have to move massive amounts of data, then you should be thinking about Robocopy and rsync.

How to Move Massive Amounts of Data Safely and Efficiently

If you're dealing with a large amount of data, you need to make sure you're moving it safely and efficiently. Here are some tips on how to do just that.

This modern LED lightbulb consumes 1/10th the energy of old-school incandescent bulbs.

Electricity

Follow our electricity guides to learn how to read your power meter, save energy, and measure the power usage of various devices in your home.

C# Color Object

Once you have a Color object you can easily get the RGB and HSB values out of it.

How to Replace A Color in an Image with C#

Sometimes you need to replace one color in an image with another color. C# makes it easy.

Node-RED makes writing home automations fast and easy.

Node-RED

Node-RED is the easiest way to manage your home automation rules. It couples well with Home Assistant and is much easier to program.

C# Switch

A switch statement in C# is a great way to switch between options.

Save png

How to Save a PNG File in C#

This guide will walk you through the steps required to save an Image or Bitmap to disc in the PNG format and allow you to specify the compression quality.

How to Lighten an Image in C#

In order to lighten an image in C# you need to look at each pixel one at a time and increase it's red, green, and blue values.

5 Reasons You Should be Using Docker for Home Automation

If you are not using Docker on your home automation server, then it's time to start thinking about it.

Convert an Image to Gray Scale in C# - A Quick and Easy Guide

Sometimes you need to take a color image and remove all of the color from it leaving just shades of gray. There are 3 common ways of performing this calculation, each yielding slightly different results.

AVR Port Output in C

Port output on an AVR microcontroller is very flexible. We show you how to configure each register.

How to Set Up STK500 Jumper Settings for AVR Programming

Make sure that you have the STK500 user guide on hand, you are going to need it.

Docker is an essential service on your home automation server

Install Docker on Your Home Automation Server: 4 Different Ways

There are many different ways to install Docker for Home Automation. Let's talk about some of the ways that you can install Docker on your home automation server.

You can get started programming with a simple setup. All it takes is a laptop and a cup of coffee.

Programming: Tips and Tricks

A collection of tips, tricks, and snippets of code for a variety of programming languages, including C#, AVR, Arduino, and Perl.

Personal binary executable directory

Make a Personal Binary Directory on Your Computer

If you want to keep your computer organized, it's a good idea to create a personal binary directory.